A Man Named Bass
by MissLizzyJ
Summary: Doc and Kitty do a little fishing. Written for a photo challenge for the Amanda Blake Forum Facebook group.


A Man Named Bass

" _Do you mean to tell me that a man by the name of Bass kept you from going fishing?"_

-Kitty in "Old Fool" season six episode 15, written by John Meston

Doc shuffled into the Long Branch wearing a downcast expression. Kitty looked up from her paper and offered her usual welcoming smile.

"Evening, Doc. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Or do you need a beer?" she added, noticing that he once again resembled a grumpy old bear.

"No thanks, Kitty," he sighed. "Has that overgrown public servant come around lately?"

Kitty looked down into her coffee cup, swirling the contents. "Oh, he and Chester stopped in here this morning. They were on there way out to serve an arrest warrant on some woman. I guess they aren't back yet."

"Oh, thunder!," Doc growled, swiping a finger over his moustache. "I finally got my patients all looked after so I can go fishing and now there's no one to go with. A woman, huh? What'd she do, anyway?"

"Well, she's been accused of attempted murder. Funny thing, it's that Mrs. Bass you were telling me about the other day." Kitty winked at him, smirking. "Curly, I guess the Bass family is keeping you from fishing again!"

"Oh? Well, we'll see about that. Miss Kitty, would you like to go fishing with me tonight?"

Kitty rested her chin in the palm of her hand, considering the offer. "Hmmm. Matt's been promising to take me on an overnight fishing trip for I don't know how long, but he never seems to be able to get away to do it. All right, Doc, you're on. Freddie and the girls can look after things tonight. Just give me half an hour to change."

* * *

Kitty and Doc sat on a log next to Doc's favorite fishing hole. Kitty insisted on having a look at Doc's brand new store-bought fishing rod and reel. This would be his first chance to use it, and it gave him another opportunity to further elaborate on how exasperating it was to fish with Chester.

"Now, Chester wouldn't look at it the way you are, you know, without touching anything," Doc huffed. "He'd have to touch and twist and twirl every moving part and probably the non-moving ones, too. At least I get to use it once before he goes and busts it."

Kitty shook her head sympathetically. "Chester does have his own way of doing things," she said charitably.

"Yes, well, not only that, did Matt tell you Chester is too squeamish to bait his own hooks? Oh, he won't come right out and say it, but he always seems to have a reason, usually a pretty flimsy one, for one of us to do it for him." Doc tugged on his ear and snorted gleefully.

"No, Matt never said anything to me, but then, he wouldn't, I guess. I don't know, Doc, you might be right about that. Chester took me fishing once and he did manage to be busy collecting firewood while I baited both hooks." She chuckled softly, handing the rod back to Doc.

"Thanks, Kitty." Doc took it from her. "You can use it later if you want to."

"No, that's all right, Doc. You enjoy it while it's still in one piece. I'll stick to the old fashioned way, it's served me pretty well so far."

"Fair enough." Doc nodded.

They settled back and fished quietly for the next couple of hours and by the time it was dark they had each caught a couple of good-sized fish. Kitty yawned and leaned against Doc for a moment. The next thing she knew, he was shaking her shoulder gently.

"Sorry, Doc," she mumbled, shaking her head to try to clear it.

"That's all right, honey. We've got company."

Kitty heard the sound of horses approaching. She sat up and strained her eyes to see in the dark. Once her eyes adjusted, she recognized the tall, familiar form of Dodge's US Marshall sitting atop the bigger horse.

"What's going on here?" Matt asked when he saw that Kitty was with Doc. He wrapped Buck's reins around a nearby tree branch and approached them. Chester followed suit, and both men dropped to the bank of the pond on either side of the log.

"Doc here was just giving me some lessons on night-time fishing," Kitty said. "Since no one else seems to have time to show me," she added gently. Matt took his hat off and ran a hand through his hair nervously, but said nothing.

"Weren't you going out to make an arrest?" Doc asked. "Don't tell me that woman drew on you!"

"No, nothing like that Doc. Once I got the whole story I decided an arrest wasn't necessary." Matt filled them in on Mrs. Bass first threatening the woman her husband had been spending time with and then setting fire to the house and barn to keep the other woman from getting her hands on them. "Let's just say he looked a lot less attractive to Mrs. Hedgpeth without his wordly goods, and that old man Bass saw the error of his ways," he finished up.

"Well, I guess all's well that ends well," Kitty said quietly. The men were laughing as though it was some sort of joke. She wondered if any of them understood the kind of desperation a woman could feel that she would give up everything she owned rather than lose her man.

"Get your hands off that!" Doc exclaimed, slapping Chester's hands away from his fishing reel.

"Oh, Doc, I just wanted to take a look at it," Chester protested.

"Well, maybe next time," Doc huffed. "Not tonight. I haven't got all day tomorrow to spend untangling it after you get ahold of it."

"Forevermore, Doc! You act like I was gonna ruin it on purpose or somethin'!"

"No, Chester, not on purpose," Doc conceded. "But you do have a way of...well...muddling things up sometimes!"

Chester protested this loudly, and Matt noticed that Kitty seemed to have taken herself out of the conversation. She was looking down at her hands thoughtfully. Matt nudged her arm with his elbow to get her attention. "You all right?" he asked when he got her to look at him.

"Yeah, just tired, I guess."

Even in the dark, Matt could tell by the look on her face that there was more to it than that. "Want me to take you home?"

She nodded. "All right."

After some discussion, it was decided-mostly by Matt-that Chester would stay behind with Doc and keep him company while he fished and Kitty would ride Chester's horse back to Dodge with Matt. Doc was particularly displeased with that turn of events, but knowing that Matt and Kitty had few opportunities to be alone, he kept his thoughts to himself. Chester was too excited over the prospect of getting his hands on Doc's new fishing reel to protest.

They had ridden several miles before Matt spoke. "Something bothering you, Kitty?" Kitty took so long to answer Matt was worried she had decided to stop speaking to him and wondered what he had done this time.

"I was just thinking about that Mrs. Bass." She waited for a moment for Matt to say something, but he remained silent. "I can sort of understand how she felt, Matt."

Matt looked sharply at her, then back at the trail in front of them. "You thinking about burning down the Long Branch, are you?"

"Of course not. I wouldn't have anything to gain by doing that. Besides, your name isn't anywhere on it. If some woman stole you away from me, she still wouldn't get her claws into my business."

Matt reined in Buck and turned to face her as the horse came to a stop next to him. "Kitty, you don't have to worry about any other women."

"Oh, I know that, Matt. I trust you. And if I had to choose-"

Matt interrupted her. "Kitty, I would never ask you to do that."

"I know that, Matt. I wouldn't ask it of you, either. We both have jobs to do. We both need to earn a living. I guess what I mean is, if there was something, somehow, that made me choose between you and the Long Branch, well, I'd much rather have you without the Long Branch than the other way around."

Matt sighed. His feeling about Kitty and his badge were so complicated. "Kitty, I-"

Kitty put her hand on his arm, cutting him off. "Matt, I know things are different for you. You don't have to say anything."

"Yes, I do," he protested. "Kitty, this badge is pretty unfair to you sometimes. I know I've been pretty unfair. I don't know why you stay with me, but I-I'm glad you do. Life wouldn't be any good without you."

"Oh, Matt!" He so seldom expressed his feelings about her openly that she was at a loss for words.

"Now, how about we head home while there's still some nighttime left," he continued, taking both sets of reins in his hand.

Kitty smiled up at him. "Cowboy, you read my mind."

END


End file.
